Monday, May 16, 2005

Star Wars and the current US political arena

Over the course of the last few days a lot of movie reviews on the latest Star Wars movie 'Revenge of the Sith' mention similiarities between the politics of the Bush administration and the power-plays of the Emperor Palpatine.

Quotes of the movie are linked to quotes mentioned by Bush. The Washington Post mentions in their article 'The Empire Strikes Bush': 'At one point, Darth Vader, already deep in the thrall of the dark side and echoing the words of George W. Bush, hisses at Obi-Wan, 'If you're not with me, you're my enemy.' Those comments are indeed a lot alike comments made by President Bush shortly after 9/11. Personally I like Obi-Wan's response in the movie, which according to the same article, is likely to surface as a bumper sticker during the next election campaign: 'Only a Sith thinks in absolutes.'.

It sure is an interesting point-of-view, but Lucas himself is quick to point out that the framework of Star Wars was written during the Nixon-era, but does acknowledge that there are a lot of similiarities between then and now. Not taking a political stand and knowing that it was never Lucas' intension to make a political statement with these movies I'm looking forward to some comments and views of other people on the subject.

4 comments:

Todd Hansen said...

My question to pose to you is do believe Christ is as evil as the make believe Siths. For Jesus Christ spoke in absolutes.

Those who speak in half truths and so called nuances are the ones who can not be trusted. People who state that "it is just to complicated for you to understand" another way of saying you are just to dumb and/or close minded. Please refer to the Bible when Satan speaks.

By the way, Thank You for pointing out the article.

Anonymous said...

You can draw paralls from any movie about any real world events. Looks to me like another example of people STRETCHING to show another person slamming Bush.

Niels said...

I'm intrigued with the comment of the Political fiddler that JC spoke in absolutes. I don't know the Bible well enough, but I'm going to talk to a few of my friends who do (and also like Star Wars). Should be an interesting subject...

Niels said...

Proud american: it's not about slamming Bush, it's about making people aware that actions have (possible) concequences. The ACLU has claimed from the beginning that the Patriot Act is not just another piece of legislation. Not that I always agree with the ACLU, on the contrary, but since the real world consists of people and films are made by the same people I think the comparisons made in the article have quite some merit.